Deterministically Chaotic Undergrad Story

Told by a Modern MTE Student
November 12, 2015

Outline

  • What I've done and where I've gone

  • Canada's Best Co-op Student of the Year

Slides online:

mrandrewandrade.com/talks/dean-advisory-council-meeting-nov-2015

Opinion based on feedback:

  • The benefits of the UW/Engineering co-op experience

  • What could be strengthened from a students perspective

Deterministically Chaotic

“The past determines the future”

BUT

“Approximate past did not approximately determine my future”

Steve Jobs Quote:

“You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” -Steve Jobs

Highschool

Port Credit: Science and Technology Program

Specialist High Skills Major in Manufacturing

Robotics!

Highschool Co-op

Machineshop! Sweeping -> Programming CNC

Before university: Chrysler!

1st co-op: Imtex membranes

  • startup doing gas filtration

  • got the job because of machine shop experience

Plastic Injection Molding

  • got the job because of machine shop experience

2nd co-op: Suncor (PetroCanada)

Reservoir engineering

3rd co-op: Peraso

Fabless Semiconductor

Hired for electrical/software

Ended up designing their first to market product

4th co-op: Facebook

Facebook Manufacturing!

Luck is

when preperation

meets opportunity!

Need more hands on experience!

Larry Smith:

Unfair advantage as UW students:

Co-op!

  • Learn what we like and what we don't

  • Hands on experience

  • Money!

  • Industry insight

5th co-op: PetroPredict

People cannot gain anything without sacrificing something.

All decisions come with costs!

Life's a Rollercoaster

Oil price

Global Petroleum Show

Learning: Business Need Comes First!

Pivot: Pipeline Risk

Taken from: http://www.mero.cz/ (can't put real data due to NDA)

Running Servers

Singapore!

Self driving bicycle!

We need to enable flexibility in design!

Real options valuation

MIT parking garage example

Co-op student of the year!

  • Majority of my work terms I got outstanding!

  • Not from work at PetroPredict

  • Not from work at Facebook

  • Not from work at Peraso

Contributions to co-op!

  • Talk to highschool

  • Hiring both highschool and Waterloo co-op

  • Created experience second to none!

Create More Value Than You Capture

Benefits of co-op

Too many (to fit on slide)!

What could be strengthened?

  • RANKING

  • Better understanding of roles

  • Change some of our classes to be project based

  • More flexibility (jobs outside jobmine, 8 months, exchange etc.)

Job ranking

  • Forcing students to make decision on offer

  • Issues with ranking (sub-optimal and unstable)

  • Stable Marriage Problem

Stable Marriage Problem

  • Won Nobel Prize in Economics in 2012

  • Guarentees “stable” match

  • Solves dealing with multiple offers

jobminealgorithm.com

Takeaway:

We as students are presented with multiple opportunities

Takeaway:

We as students are presented with multiple opportunities

some opportunities doors to even better learning experiences

Takeaway:

We as students are presented with multiple opportunities

some opportunities doors to even better learning experiences

UW engineering focus on enabling opportunities for more students.

Highlights of Feedback:

  1. Better job matching -> Stable marriage problem
  2. Hands on experience -> Engage industry
  3. Flexibility in courses and co-op

Questions?

andrew@andrewandrade.ca

mrandrewandrade.com/talks/dean-advisory-council-meeting-nov-2015

jobminealgorithm.com